536 research outputs found
Appendix -Supplemental material for A survey of local authorities and Home Improvement Agencies: Identifying the hidden costs of providing a home adaptations service
No full textSupplemental material, Appendix for A survey of local authorities and Home Improvement Agencies: Identifying the hidden costs of providing a home adaptations service by Lesley Curtis and Jennifer Beecham in British Journal of Occupational Therapy</p
A nurse practitioner service for nursing and residential care homes
No full textAn economic component was added retrospectively to an evaluation that sought to discover
whether the provision of a Nurse Practitioner service would improve the health of nursing and
residential home residents (Jerram, 2001). The residents of 28 homes on the south coast were
recruited; 191 residents in 14 study homes and 154 residents in control group homes who would
continue to receive routine care. The combined study also aimed to examine whether the nurse
practitioner service would improve residents’ access to health care and reduce GPs workload, and
to estimate the relative cost implications.
An important part of the research was to estimate unit costs for the Nurse Practitioner (NP). NPs
have advanced skills in assessment and clinical decision-making and work with many client
groups and in different service contexts (Horrocks et al., 2002). It was important therefore that a
unit cost was estimated for this study that reflected the resources and working patterns put in place
to support this client group. This short article outlines the service-specific estimation work
following the four-stage methodology summarised in Netten and Beecham (1999)
Unit Costs: Not Exactly Child’s Play
No full textThis short guide tries to make a complicated, some would say alien, accounting procedure accessible and comprehensible to a wide readership of local authority staff, researchers and trainers. The main aim has been to produce a tool kit versatile enough to cater for the multiplicity of local authority arrangements and cost demands. It should put into the hands of finance managers and policy makers a coherent method for calculating unit costs that is convincing in its relationship with the work of social services departments and the realities of children's needs.
Foreword by John Hutton MP:If we are to discover whether we are getting the best value for money from social services, we have to know their true cost. Expenditure needs to be connected directly to the needs of children and families, and the services they receive. The help they receive is usually a mixture of services varying in both amount and costs. The only way to find out the real cost is to build it up from the unit costs of the component services.
There is no escaping that finding out how much services really cost at the point of delivery is not a simple business. But I hope this guide shows that it need not be dull. It sets out to make the subject of calculating unit costs accessible by means of striking graphic design and a light touch, without losing the necessary rigour and attention to detail.
The book is intended to help managers of children’s services, particularly non-financial managers, get to grips with how unit cost are calculated. It is intended to be helpful in the final stages of this year’s Children in Need Data Collection when unit costs are applied to activity measures. In addition it is meant to be a launch pad for improvements to unit cost methodology aimed at achieving greater accuracy, consistency and comprehensiveness in future years as part of the general drive for performance measurement and best value. Although they are applied here to the way children’s services are delivered, the theory and general application will be useful in the field of adult social care also.
I hope that this handbook will prove to be accessible, instructive and a convenient source of reference for busy managers
Disabled children and their families: the research evidence
No full textCost and cost-effectiveness studies should be underpinned by a clear understanding of economic theory and economicevaluative techniques. There is quite an extensive body of literature exploring the application of these approaches in healthand social care contexts (see, for example, Netten and Beecham, 1993; Knapp, 1995; Drummond et al., 1998). Many ofthe existing studies consider services and supports for adults but they provide a good basis for taking similar researchforward in child care.
Paper prepared for: SPRU/DH Seminar, Moat House, York, 28-29 March 2001
Young families under stress: outcomes and costs of Home-Start support
No full textSupporting parents is central to the current government’s approach to improving children’s lives. However, little is as yet known about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of family support services. This study evaluates one of these – Home-Start – which is currently one of the largest family support organisations in the UK. Established over thirty years ago, it offers volunteer home visiting support to families with children under five years of age.Comparing a study group of young families who received Home-Start support with a comparison group who did not, the study explores the mothers’ views and needs at the outset of the study. It reports their views one year later, and considers the outcomes at that stage. The economic situation of the families and their receipt of services over time are analysed, and the cost-effectiveness of Home-Start is addressed. The concluding chapter summarises the key findings of the study.The authors found that although the mothers who had received the support of a Home-Start volunteer obviously valued the service, there was no clear evidence that it had made a positive difference to them in terms of outcomes, relative to those of the families in the comparison group. They suggest that the results did not therefore point to a cost-effectiveness advantage for Home-Start. Given that the support was offered only on a low intensity basis (one home visit per week), the authors suggest that a longer term follow up would be advisable before reaching firm conclusions about the impact of the service
Young families under stress: assessing maternal and child well-being using a mixed methods approach
No full textSupporting parents has been reinforced as central to improving children's lives. Assessment of needs, however, is crucial to the provision of effective support. This paper focuses upon the assessment of well-being of mothers and their children in 162 young families experiencing stress in south-east England and Northern Ireland. A mixed-methods approach to assessment was adopted and the strengths of using face-to-face interviews alongside standardized measures are explored
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